Sunday, September 17, 2006

The US National Debt

I've got to wonder if anyone's really paying attention to what our government is doing to the national debt. And we're not talking a slow decades long problem. Just a few years ago, I'm talking 3 years, we had a 500 billion plus surplus.

Today? Well let the US National Debt clock tell the story:

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 17 Sep 2006 at 07:36:58 PM GMT is:

$ 8 , 5 3 2 , 5 4 3 , 1 8 6 , 3 3 3 . 7 1

The estimated population of the United States is 299,521,300
so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,487.27.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.70 billion per day since September 30, 2005.


















Above is a graph that gives you a visual representation over time.

Now, I know that the Republicans have a semi-unstated goal of bankrupting the federal government in order to lessen the influence of government in our lives. But I've got to ask is this is something that works.

I'm technically an independent. I don't really follow a party line. But I know one thing: If I ran my personal life, or my business, remotely close to how the current republican administration is running our country, I'd be both personally bankrupt and out of business.

America's heading toward being the shortest lived 'world power' in history. And I'd say, from a purely fiscal perspective, this has got to be an intentional policy on the part of the Republicans (who are TOTALLY in control right now with the white house, the congress, the senate AND the US Supreme court, with the recent placement of right leaning justices, all in their power.)

So, I've got to lay this (and many many other problems) squarely at the doorstep of the Republicans.

When Clinton handed over the government to the Republicans, we had a rapidly expanding economy, low interest rates, rising home values, full employment, respect among the world powers and world wide (relative) peace.

What do we have today?

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An excellent read from an ex-evangelical.

  As you know, I once was an evangelical megachurch pastor and my pastoral career stretched over many years. Eventually, I could no longer t...